Jess M. Brallier is publisher of several web sites, including Poptropica, a virtual world for kids ages 8-12, which publishes "narrative quests;" and Funbrain which first published "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid." Prior to entering the digital world, Brallier founded the children's imprint Planet Dexter (Penguin); served on the executive publishing teams at Addison-Wesley and Little Brown; and was a best-selling author of both adult and children’s books.

As President of Capstone Digital a business unit of Capstone, Brekhus leads the digital product vision and strategy as the organization continues to expand its digital solutions in the education market.

Michael Cader is the creator of Publishers Lunch, the largest-circulation book publishing industry publication in the world, and its companion website PublishersMarketplace.com. For 15 years he created and produced over 300 books through his book packaging company, Cader Books.
Publishers Launch Conferences springboard from the branding, vast audience and deep respect for Publishers Lunchwith 45,000 subscribers, the largest publication for book publishing professionals worldwide, and the recognized leader in comprehensive coverage and thoughtful, clear-eyed analysis of the stories and statistics that matter the most in this transitional time.

Gretchen Caserotti is the Assistant Director for Public Services, formerly Head of Children Teen Services at Darien Library (CT). She has a national reputation as a librarian innovator and technology integration specialist.

Christian is co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Mindshapes, the interactive learning company behind the interactive preschool channel Magic Town. Christian has spent 15 years advising media and technology companies on business and product innovation, branding and marketing. He previously served as SVP in WPP running Millward Brown Optimor in Europe. Prior to this Christian led consultancy projects around the world for Prophet Brand Strategy, CVA and PwC. Christian holds a Master's degree in Economics from CBS and has completed post-graduate studies at Harvard University.

Deborah A. Forte is Executive Vice President of Scholastic Inc. and President of Scholastic Media, and serves as the organization’s lead business and creative head. She is an innovator and an award winning producer, developer, and designer of multi-platform content that meets the needs of children and families – including book based software, applications, television, film and websites. Ms. Forte is leading the team that created Storia®, Scholastic’s new eReading platform and eBooks system.

Neal Goff is the founder of Egremont Associates, a consulting firm that provides strategic advice and execution support to publishers and educational technology firms. Neal founded Egremont Associates in January 2010 after a successful 25-year publishing career, which culminated in his serving for five years as President Weekly Reader. Previously, Neal served as President of Scholastic Library Publishing and Prentice Hall Direct, and held a number of senior positions at Time Inc.'s Time Life and Book-of-the-Month Club divisions. He is on the Boards of the Association of Educational Publishing and of ReadWorks, a non-profit organization whose mission is to close the achievement gap in reading.

Peter Hildick-Smith is President of Codex-Group LLC. Founded in 2004, the firm pioneered book audience research. Codex tracks and forecasts digital book trends for book publishers, retailers and technology companies, using quantitative online research as a foundation for business strategy development. The company’s proprietary, digital Book Preview and Author Equity pre-publication market test programs help publishers and authors boost new book discovery, purchase conversion rates, expand audiences and increase sales—supporting the successful publication of numerous New York Times bestsellers.

Eric Huang is a pop culture fan who is passionate about storytelling. His first ‘real job’ was as an assistant at Disney Publishing in LA, where he worked for six years in a variety of editorial roles. Eric moved to Melbourne in 2001 as managing editor at Penguin Australia. Three years later he became publisher at Aussie toy company Funtastic’s new book division. Eric now lives in London and is back at Penguin. He’s publishing director for Penguin’s Media and Entertainment division and is always on the look-out for creative partnerships to tell stories on traditional and new media platforms.

Carl Kulo is US Director of Bowker® Market Research, a recognized leader in plotting trends that impact organizations serving book consumers. At Bowker, Mr. Kulo’s role includes management of the Bowker consumer research panel, reaching more than 100,000 US book consumers, where he collaborates with teams of researchers to monitor and analyze market movement and the digital transformation in the book market. Mr. Kulo manages the children’s book consumer biannual study, Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age looking at market trends in book discovery, consumption, and buying behaviors among parents, teachers, and kids.

Linda Leonard is the Executive Director of Digital Marketing at Random House Children’s Books. During her tenure there, she has worked on a range of children’s and young adult books and series including younger properties such as Dr. Seuss and Magic Tree House to teen series such as the Maze Runner series, Inheritance Cycle, and the Fallen Series.

Karen Lotz is group managing director of Walker Books Ltd (London, England), and also serves as president and publisher of Candlewick Press, located in Somerville, Massachusetts. Candlewick Press, one of the nation's largest independent publishing companies, is the U.S. subsidiary of the Walker Books Group, which also includes Walker Books UK, Walker Books Australia, and Walker Productions, a children's television development company. Collectively the Walker/Candlewick group constitutes what is perhaps the largest employee-owned publishing company in the world, with more than 100 long-time writers and illustrators also sharing in the company's ownership in a unique business model.

Tina McIntyre was promoted the newly created position of Executive Director, Digital Publishing and Operations at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in October 2011. In this role, she is charged with overseeing and directing all digital publishing initiatives including account promotions, digital production and business development.
Prior to assuming this new role, she was LBYR's Director of Marketing, guiding the division's marketing efforts and spearheading the campaigns for The Twilight Saga.
Tina began her publishing career at Scholastic in 2000 and holds a Masters in Publishing from NYU.

Kristen McLean is the founder and CEO of Bookigee.com, an innovative early-stage tech venture in the publishing industry. Before founding Bookigee, Kristen was the Executive Director of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), a non-profit trade association that networks the children’s book industry. In 2011, ABC merged with its larger sister association, the American Bookseller’s Association where its work on behalf of children’s booksellers continues.

Sonia Nash Gupta is a Senior Producer, Social Media Manager at Random House Children’s Books. She is responsible for creating and implementing immersive title/author campaigns including video and game production. In addition, Sonia manages the division's social networking presence, including their award-winning teen lit community RandomBuzzers.com.

Dominique Raccah is the CEO & publisher of Sourcebooks, the company she founded in 1987 which is now the largest woman-owned trade book publishing company in the country. From the start, Raccah has directed a continuously growing entrepreneurial company that has morphed into a general trade house, happily producing everything from bestsellers in fiction, to number one titles in baby names and college guides, eighteen New York Times Bestsellers and over twenty national bestsellers.

Taking imagination and innovation to new levels combined with entrepreneurship has been a driving passion for Asra Rasheed throughout her career. As CEO of RRKidz, Asra’s vision is about making a meaningful and positive impact on today’s digital children through experiences they will grow to remember, love, and learn from.

Lorraine Shanley is President of Market Partners International, a consulting firm that specializes in traditional and digital publishing in the US and internationally. One of the top recruiters in the industry, MPI also works with publishers, brands, cultural institutions and associations, and technology firms on various aspects of content development and distribution. As well, Shanley serves as publisher of Publishing Trends, a monthly newsletter read by publishing professionals in 30 countries around the world.

Mike Shatzkin runs a strategic consulting firm (The Idea Logical Company), is a partner in a conference business (Publishers Launch Conferences), and is the program chair for the biggest annual gathering of trade publishers discussing digital change (Digital Book World). He is also the author of The Shatzkin Files, a blog he began over three years ago.

Jon Yaged is the President of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group which includes Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, Feiwel and Friends, First Second Books, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, Priddy Books, Roaring Brook Press, and Square Fish.
Prior to Macmillan, Jon was COO of social media marketing company House Party.
Jon joined House Party from The Walt Disney Company, where he held a series of increasingly responsible positions in Disney’s consumer products and publishing businesses, becoming VP & U.S. Publisher, Disney Book Group.
Prior to joining Disney, Jon practiced entertainment and technology law. He has a JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a BBA in Finance from The George Washington University. Jon began his career as business manager for the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.